


the exchange

by NotusLethe



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, gratuitous secret santa, how can you avoid that, they are a goddamn family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21997078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotusLethe/pseuds/NotusLethe
Summary: What is a good Winter's Crest without the obligatory secret santa?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16
Collections: Critmas Exchange 2019





	the exchange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [infinityandluck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinityandluck/gifts).



_when i'm feeling sad_  
_i simply remember my favorite things_  
_and then i dont feel so bad_  
_\- "favorite things" the sound of music_

The idea, of course, is Jester's. She calls them all to her room, makes them sit in a semi-circle on the floor, and stands over them very seriously. She's already in her sleeping clothes, so the pronouncement comes from a tiefling clad in a pink-sequined jumpsuit with too many white bows to count. After she finished her explanation, there's a long drawn out pause.

"I don't get it," Caduceus says, and there's a widespread sigh of mutual relief.

"What? It's not hard," Jester says, gesticulating broadly. "You get a present for the name you pick, that's all."

"But you," Yasha hesitates. "But you can't tell the person?"

"No, not until the night of Winter's Crest. That's the whole point!"

Beau gracefully rocks up to her feet. "Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So how do we figure out who we get?"

"Oh!" Jester spins around and digs through the mess she's made on her bed. After a few moments, she seems to find what she's looking for and pulls out a large hat ("Hey, that's mine!" Nott yells). "I already put everybody's name in here, so you just have to pull one out. Here, Beau."

Beau grabs onto the hat like it is going to bite her, but she gamely picks out a name. At Jester's shooing motion, she hands it over to Yasha. The hat proceeds around the room, until Caleb finally reaches in and picks the last piece of paper folded at the bottom.

Everyone reads their small slip of paper. Jester claps loudly and throws herself on her bed. "We have three days, but we're in Zadash, so it won't be hard to find something for everybody."

There's a pregnant pause, and slowly everyone begins to drift out of the room. Even Beau, who is currently staying in that very room, dashes off somewhere. Soon, it is only Jester and Caleb. He doesn't say anything, trying to best figure out the way to phrase it.

"Jester-" he starts. She sits up faster than he would expect. Her eyes are bright and dancing and she seems almost vibrating with energy. It makes Caleb tired.

"Hi, Caleb! Do you already know what you are going to get your person? You're very smart, so I'm sure you thought of something right away."

"Ah, no." Caleb sits down next to her. He fidgets with the paper in his hands. "This is a tradition? From your home?"

Jester starts to pull at a thread in the gold duvet, the fraying edge giving easily as she works it free. "Oh yes, we did this every year at the Lavish Chateau. I always wanted to get my mom, because I knew exactly what to get her, but I had Bluud last year and I still think I did pretty well."

"You are very thoughtful when it comes to others," Caleb says, watching the two pieces of fabric slowly part, exposing a blush pink interior. "Jester, the name that I got-"

"Oh no!" She quickly puts her hands over her ears and glares at him. "That's the whole point, Caleb. You can't tell anyone!"

"I wasn't-"

"But," she says, hands sliding down to rest beneath her chin. "If you did get me, then I can tell you some things that I like. Pastries, of course. Pink, and dogs and cats and animals, all of them. And I think the music Yasha and Caduceus make is very good, and maybe I can learn an instrument to play with them."

"No, I, ah, I didn't get you, Jester."

"Caleb!"

"Sorry, I probably didn't get you, Jester. But I will keep all of that in mind, just in case." He opens the piece of paper, folds it, runs his fingernail along the crease so it is sharp. "I am not certain how to proceed."

She takes one of his hands in hers, her skin cool to the touch. When Caleb looks up, Jester's smiling. "Sometimes, when you get a present, it doesn't even matter what it is. It's, you know, because you thought of them. No one will get mad at you, whatever you get them. I promise."

"You promise, huh?" Caleb said, helpless to return her smile.

She makes a motion over her chest. "Cross my heart. Now, get out of here! And if you find out who got me, tell them my list, okay?"

The Leaky Tap is only a bit less shabby than when they last visited it, and so Caleb's somewhat disheveled appearance isn't too out of place. He doesn't spot anyone in the bar; they must be out, probably in the Pentamarket. Reluctantly, Caleb heads that way.

He didn't expect to catch up with anybody, but he runs nearly right into Beau, who stands at the entrance to the market with her hands on her hips, face scrunched up in a frown.

"You look as lost as me."

Beau rolls her eyes. "Yeah, you could say that. I feel like I _know_ what I'm gonna get, but then I don't know if it's good enough. What if it's not good enough?"

"I don't- I am sure it depends on who you have, Beau." He starts walking and Beau trails behind him.

"Jester, I got _Jester_. I know everything she likes, but I don't wanna just get her a bag of pastries. I want to get her something she'll really like, something that's not obvious." Even though they are still barely inside the market, Beau peers into shops she's been in a hundred times before, as though they will change what they carry. "Who did you get?"

"I think it will be easy for you to find something for Jester. You know her very well, and she is generous in these things." Caleb wishes he had gotten Jester. She is remarkably easy to please, and while he knows - practically - what he could get every member of their group, finding something that would serve well as a present eludes him.

Beau putters to a stop in front of one of Zadash's more exclusive jewelry shops. The display is full of glittering necklaces and intricate bracelets with delicate filigree in any metal you could ask for. She hesitates outside, takes a step in, then steps back out.

"I mean," Beau says, gesturing uncertainly. "That's too much, right? I couldn't just - I mean, that would be weird, right?"

"Jester didn't say there was a limit, but I think, maybe, that these gifts are _from_ you to _her_ , not something anyone could get." He scans over the jewelry and there are many things he could see Jester liking, far too many. And none of them feel like they would come from Beau. Beau, who -scowling - stomps away from the jewelry shop.

"You just _had_ to say that, didn't you Caleb? Now what am I gonna do?" She storms away, even as he calls out a ' _schuldigung_ ' and she flips him off over her shoulder. Going well.

It's through wandering more of the market that Caleb runs into another one of the group. Yasha stands in front of a leatherworker, her thick arms folded across her chest, a frown tugging down her mouth. He makes noise as he sidles up to her as to not surprise her.

"Are you finding what you are looking for?" he says, watching as the leatherworker takes a burnisher and rubs the bone around and around until the piece of leather grows shiny.

"No." She takes a deep breath, as though to say something, then rethinks it. Finally, she sighs. "This is more difficult than I thought."

"You are not sure what to get your person?"

Yasha stares at the worker. "I still feel as though I am missing a lot from when I was… gone. You all went through a tough time together."

He hadn't coalesced the thought into that sentiment, but Caleb understood what Yasha meant. There were things, especially between he, Nott, and Beau, that none of the group would ever be able to understand. Things Yasha could never understand. But she'd done so much to alleviate that gap, and Caleb can appreciate penance.

"That is true, but we have made a new chapter. One that you are in. I would not be so quick to discount your experience with us." He doesn't look at her, and she doesn't look at him, but he feels her lean closer.

"Do you think… Beau needs something like this?" She gestures at the harness the leatherworker is crafting. It's well-done, the stitching invisible except where it's decorative, but clearly intended for someone using daggers.

"Maybe not this one, but she is fond of weapons." She nods, and he feels the slightest brush of fingertips against his arm. 

He leaves Yasha speaking in her soft quiet way to the leatherworker and heads out of the city. The crownsguard at the gate don't remark on his exit, even though sundown is only an hour away and the orange rays of sunlight turn the walls golden. The area near the city is only mud, trampled grass and too many travelers.

Further out, Caleb spots wildflowers, pink and periwinkle, glinting in the light. He runs his fingers along the soft petals, tempted to pick them and leave them be in equal measures.

"They're very nice, aren't they? They're poisonous, but I think it's enough that they are beautiful." Caduceus kneels next to a patch of the blue flowers, the color like moth wings, leaving streaks across the back of his hand.

Caleb kneels beside him. "They are very beautiful. If you can't make tea from them, what are they for?"

Gently, Caduceus picks a sprig of the small flowers and tucks it into the twist Jester had put into Caleb's hair earlier. He smiles. "'For?' Flowers are for bees, but they're also for people. Things don't need to have a use, Caleb."

"I suppose not. Are you here looking for your gift?"

Caduceus tilts his head back to look into the sky where a hawk glides on a thermal, swooping down to snatch something small and squirming from the field. "Hmm. Yes. I think this is the best place to find something for Yasha. She needs something practical, but she likes things that are pure and pretty. Do you give what is needed or what is wanted?"

Caleb sits, leaning back on his hands so he can also watch the sky. At the farthest point to the horizon he can just see the nadir of night approaching, only the brightest stars strong enough to show.

"I do think both are necessary, if possible, but in this instance, Caduceus, wanted is better. Let her have something, ah, frivolous? at this time."

A large warm hand covered in dirt clasps Caleb on the shoulder. "Yeah, that sounds right. She's always so busy thinking she still has to atone. A lot like you."

That smile - the one Caleb hates - the one that is brittle and strained, breaks across his face. "Ah, well, _nein_ , I don't-"

"Oh, no. No, that's not what I meant at all," Caduceus says, squeezing the back of Caleb's neck with enough emotion that it stoppers up the words in his throat. "You don't have to pretend like that. You can sit there and frown and be sad and I'll just sit next to you. Okay?"

He really should focus on finding a present. Caleb breathes out shakily. " _Schon gut._ "

* * *

At Winter's Crest, they exchange presents.

Caduceus volunteers to start. He gives Yasha a ghost-white flower with a blush pink center that sparks when it catches the light just so. It's the last piece of the Savalirwood he had, probably lost forever now that the entire forest had been corrupted. It won't die, he promises, and if she plants it, it will grow again.

Yasha reverently nods her thanks, then hesitates before she gives her gift to Beau. Caleb smiles as Yasha presents Beau with a quill that won't run out of ink if you dip it in its well once a month. A useful gift, but playing to Beau's hidden gift of intellect, rather than her obvious strengths.

The gift Beau gives Jester is obviously not of the past few days. It is an extremely delicate necklace that drapes across the throat in an intricate net. Gemstones are caught light fireflies in a web, starting deep red ruby, changing to amethyst and then to sapphire. It is an expensive and extensive piece. Jester cries a little, and Beau brushes it off. But Caleb knows she must have been working on it a long time. Maybe the only custom Lionett piece in existence.

Jester shyly hands Fjord a glass jar. It appears empty, but when tilted on its side, the scene inside shifts to a boat sailing along the ocean. It takes Caleb only a moment to recognize the Ball-Eater, and the tiny figures running across it.

Surprisingly, Fjord got Nott, and at first, he hands her a small bit of jerky, which he says comes from the finest rats Zadash has to offer. However, when Jester smacks his arm, Fjord relents and gives Nott her real gift: a quiver that retrieves any bolts fired from it, inlaid with the same scrolling work that encircles her eyes.

Nott bounds over to Caleb and gives him her gift. He recognizes the layout and fields of Blumenthal woven into the blanket, the shifting threads making it look as though wind moves along the wheat. He's not sure the words he chokes out are in Common, but Nott throws her arms around him nonetheless.

In the excitement and ensuing chaos, Caleb sits next to Caduceus. No one noticed that he hadn't handed over the present, but he didn't want to so openly. It is a small box, dwarfed even moreso in Caduceus's large hand.

Inside is a stone. When Caduceus presses it and holds the stone up to his ear to hear the message, Caleb's voice says "I will save your home, as you have worked so hard to save all of us. You are our home."

Caduceus just smiles.


End file.
